AT&T will invest $8 billion as part of effort to cover 300 million with LTE by 2014

AT&T intends to spend $14 billion over the next three years to improve its services, including $8 billion set aside for its wireless initiatives. The nation's largest wireless carrier also announced that it has raised the number of people it expects to be served by its LTE network.

As part of its Project Velocity IP (VIP) initiative, AT&T Wireless will spend the next three years expanding the reach of its 4G LTE network. Though the carrier had originally stated that it planned to reach 250 million people by the end of 2013, it now intends to reach 300 million by the end of 2014. AT&T expects to reach 99 percent of all current customer locations in 22 states by 2014.

Reaching widespread 4G availability will require AT&T to obtain more spectrum. AT&T has acquired additional spectrum through more than 40 deals this year, though some are still pending FCC approval. The carrier expects to have 118MHz of spectrum if all pending deals are approved, but it says even that will not be enough to meet long-term demands for its network. AT&T says it will continue to lobby the FCC to release more spectrum to wireless providers in the U.S..